By Chris Wisson
The past few years have seen a strong rebound when it comes to social activities, experiences and events.
The growing consensus is that affluent/HNWIs are now associating luxury more with experiences and emotional resonance rather than the pure ownership of physical goods. While some hard luxury brands have seen an uneven performance in 2024/25, others are thriving.
It is not as ‘cut and dried’ as saying that experiences are winning over goods.
Experiential luxury comes to the fore
For example, very few HNWIs in the U.K., U.S. and China expect to cut back on hard luxury purchases in 2026, with projected spend looking flat or with a slight increase versus this year, a trend also seen in Bain’s new industry barometer.
Watches (+17 percent), jewelry (+16 percent) and leather goods (+15 percent) all have a positive net differential between those expecting to spend more rather than cutting back. The picture is even more positive for more experiential categories, with a notable net share – travel (+59 percent) and hospitality/dining (+ 56 percent) – anticipating a boost in spend, often significantly so.
Luxury is now also becoming more closely associated with longevity, physical and mental health, and is rising rapidly up HNWIs’ list of personal priorities: half (49 percent) expect to spend more on both fitness/performance and wellness services/treatments in the year ahead, with only one in ten cutting back on these.
While technology can assist here (e.g., biohacking, smart devices), gyms are booming in popularity – particularly among under-40s – both as a place to exercise but also socialize, tapping into this experiential shift. Concurrently, many countries are now seeing a notable drop in engagement for ‘remote’ activities such as dating apps and social media.
Millionaires, mobiles and screen time
This sense of returning to in-person interactions was also evident in the ‘Luxury Recalibrated’ chapter of BoF’s new State of Fashion 2026 report.
The research, run among Altiant HNWIs in the U.K., U.S. and China, found two in five (39 percent) saying that a better in-store environment or service would encourage them to buy more from luxury fashion brands in 2026.
Growing numbers of brands are recalibrating their stores as experiential venues, rather than simply as transactional spaces. The concept of experiential retail is not particularly new, but it seems to be more relevant than ever for brands wanting to forge deeper and more personal relationships with their customers, beyond a screen.
Around 40 percent of HNWIs’ total internet access during the week comes via their smartphones, rising to 45 percent at the weekend, according to Altiant’s recent Millionaires’ Media Consumption reports (across 8 countries and 1,800 HNWIs).
Tasks such as paying for something (67 percent) and doing online banking (63 percent) with a smartphone are now commonplace for the majority.
Smaller-screen visualizations and usability on mobiles will therefore remain important for brands looking to reach these wealthy customers. Nevertheless, almost half (48 percent) say that they are now actively trying to reduce their screen time on these devices.
Interestingly, there is a strong geographical variation in this response. From around three in five trying to cut back in each of the four Western markets, this falls to half in the U.A.E. and around one third in the three Asian markets studied.
HNWIs’ online presence is rapidly evolving
The online environment is becoming increasingly complex as metrics like audience reach, emotional resonance and influencers’ ROI become more opaque and harder for brands to measure accurately.
Indeed, it is thought that around half of all internet traffic is now generated by bot activity.
The rapid proliferation of AI content online – something which several HNWIs say has already impacted their favorite social media platforms – is adding to the feeling of decline, so much so that one quarter of HNWIs removed social media apps from their smartphone within the three months to June 2025.
Many also reported feeling increasingly uncomfortable with brands tracking them online, 33 percent rejecting website cookies and 22 percent using ad-blockers.
Online advertising and communications will, of course, remain a crucial part of the marketing mix, but there are now clear signs of change. The risk is that technological advances, counterintuitively, introduce additional obstacles that only serve to distance brands from their customers.
With many HNWIs taking steps to reduce their screen time, brands need to be cognizant of this evolution in customer behavior. Relying too heavily on online engagement becomes riskier as the shift towards a more direct and human relationship looks set to gather momentum in the coming years.
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